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Chaos erupted in Ghana’s parliament late on Thursday night, with lawmakers destroying furniture, and pushing and shoving each other.<\/p>\n
Police were called into the meeting – held to vet Ghana’s new ministerial appointments – as MPs damaged tables and microphones.<\/p>\n
The vetting committee had disagreed over a number of issues, with some accusing opposition MPs of dragging out the process in order to settle political scores.<\/p>\n
On Friday morning the vetting committee’s chairman apologised to the Ghanaian public, calling it “totally unacceptable”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The cross-party committee had been scheduled to vet three lawmakers from the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).<\/p>\n
The trio had been nominated for ministerial positions after the NDC triumphed over the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in December’s elections.<\/p>\n
However, NDC MPs accused Alexander Afenyo-Markin, the NPP’s leader in parliament, of questioning the ministerial nominees for an unnecessarily long time.<\/p>\n
More than five hours were spent on vetting just one nominee – communications minister designate Samuel Nartey George.<\/p>\n
Many NDC MPs believe this was a form of payback from opposition MPs on the committee, who wanted George to retract his criticism of former president and NPP leader Nana Akufo-Addo and Akufo-Addo’s Vice-President Mahamadu Bawumia.<\/p>\n
Members of the vetting committee ended up on their feet – shouting, pushing and shoving each other and upturning tables. <\/p>\n
As a result, the Speaker of parliament suspended four lawmakers – three from the NPP and one from the governing party – for two weeks.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the NPP’s Afenyo-Markin said parliamentary customs allowed committee members “the opportunity to enquire deeply into every nominee of the president, without limit to questions”.<\/p>\n
He accused the NDC of trying to “frustrate” this process.<\/p>\n
As a result of the chaos, the vetting ended up being adjourned until Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n